Today's hospitals generally have a large number of clinics and departments that serve both the patients and the needs of the hospital. A patient entering a hospital may be admitted by the registration department or through an emergency care unit and assigned a room in a hospital in-patient clinic. Later, the admitted patient may undergo a series of tests that involve the hospital laboratories and specimens may be taken to determine the state of the patient's health. The patient may, depending on the results of the tests, undergo surgery and spend time in a recovery room or intensive care unit under the constant care of physicians and nursing staff.
The patient, after leaving the recovery room or intensive care unit, may be returned to the originally assigned room or to a room in another in-patient clinic of the hospital. Personal physicians of the patient, along with staff physicians and nurses of the hospital, may prescribe various tests and drugs required for care of the patient. Record entries for the patient are maintained at the in-patient clinic nurses station. Various medicines and drugs are obtained from the hospital pharmacy and charge information provided to the hospital financial department. The financial department accumulates patient charges and prepares a bill that is available at the financial department upon discharge of the patient from the hospital.
In addition to the hospital in-patient clinic, there may be out-patient clinics where a patient may be admitted for the purpose of receiving hospital services performed by physicians and nurses. As with the in-patient clinics, the out-patient clinics may prescribe tests and obtain medicines and drugs from the hospital pharmacy. Record entries are prepared and used by the physicians and nurses to provide care for the patient and by the financial department in preparing a bill for services. In addition, there may be a hospital records department where records of current patients are maintained and records of past patients are archived. Hospitals also have medical departments wherein patient records may be maintained by various physicians and wherein new medical record forms may be developed. In addition, new drugs and medical procedures may be recommended by the medical department for use by the hospital physician and nursing staff.
Information systems have been developed for hospitals for use by the hospital financial department in preparing patient bills. Such a type of information system is usually provided on a large mainframe computer which is also used for general financial matters such as payroll, accounts receivable and accounts payable. In addition, a hospital may also have a medical claim verification and processing system for determining a patient's background, medical and insurance information for use in determining the amount of payment for particular insurance claims. Some hospitals may also have a computer-controlled medical care system for use in the treatment and care of patients. Such systems have a control unit adapted for instructing through algorithms teams of hospital staff physicians and nurses and advising the team members to perform diagnostic and therapeutic procedures according to a predetermined plan. There may also be a computer-controlled medical system for use in caring for the needs of specific patients and for receiving, storing and reporting medical test information for an entire patient population.
A problem arises in that each of these information systems are a stand-alone system developed for use by a specific clinic or department of a hospital. It appears that none of these systems have been developed for use by all of the clinics and departments of a hospital. Accordingly, a need exists for a medical information system interconnecting all of the clinics and departments of a hospital. A need also exists for a hospital information system interconnecting all of the clinics and departments of a hospital wherein record and medical data may be entered into the system and made available to all of the clinics and departments of a hospital in accordance with specific clinic and department station requirements required to protect record, medical and patient data.